Above: Kegerator refurbishing in-progress.

My hubby and I are homebrewers — yep, we brew beer and we brew very, very good beer. (Okay, so suddenly you are my new best friend right?)

As we and our two partners get ready to embark on “going nano” (which is short for a nano-brewery, rather than a micro-brewery), we are purchasing equipment. And most of this equipment is used.

This weekend, we are in the process of restoring a three-tap kegerator. This was left behind by a restaurant that went out of business a long time ago. So here we are, lovingly taking it apart, cleaning it and getting new tubing and connectors for our used cornelius “corny” kegs. (Now, I am sure some of you out there are willing to help us make sure it works correctly!)

There are so many things that we as consumers could find for free or buy used, rather than continuing to consume “virgin” products and then make them usable again. If we did not restore this unit, it would have rusted out and been dumped in a landfill. Instead, The Santa Ana Brewery will use it to better the earth by serving refreshing craft beer to the world on our reused, refurbished taps. I think everyone is a winner here. CHEERS!